Archive for December, 2009

Here’s an Alaskan fish ladder, where the hatchery-raised fish come to spawn and die. Turns out they kill them before they spawn and die on their own. Tough life if you’re a fish.

Had a nice day. Got the clutch slave cylinder for the Miata and got it installed, with the help of LRN1 and LRN2. Got the console latch for the Suburban and got it installed. Went to the new club and exercised. Well, the club’s not new by any means, but it’s new to me. Exercised, anyway. Got the new filler guts for the toilet in my bathroom and got them installed. Did a few other things that don’t come to mind right now. Finally, we all went to our friends the Crocketts’ house to eat pizza and watch BYU’s bowl game victory. Lots of fun.

Not much else new. Lots more automotive-related work to get done. But tomorrow’s cookie-baking day, so I might confine my automotive-related work to getting the pickup smogged. Which will be enough for me. I’m pretty sore from the gym. Which is probably a very good thing. Speaking of which, I’m delighted to report the scale informed me I’ve lost another 1.5 pounds from my previous low. Making progress toward my aggressive weight-loss goal. Good thing.

Here’s a pretty little waterfall by the Mendenhall glacier. In Alaska, of course. Very pretty place on a very pretty day.

It’s day three of my sixteen-day holiday/vacation. We got a few things done today – ordered a new clutch slave cylinder for the Miata, ordered a new console latch for the Suburban, and joined a gym. Also went to see a movie – the first in quite a while for me. We saw Disney’s new Christmas Carol movie. Pretty good. Maybe a bit intense for small children, though. The four of us enjoyed it, though.

And I’ve waited until it’s way too late to blog any more today. I’ll leave you with today’s food violence news: beer assault. Although I’m not sure beer should count as food.

Here’s the remains of a military barracks building at Fort Seward in Haines, Alaska. I wish I could report this as the outcome of some great military battle. But as I recall, their refrigerator or water heater or something caught on fire and burned the place to the ground, long after the military had abandoned the post. Well, we can always dream.

Made the decision to take the whole week of next week, so tomorrow’s my last work day of the year! Woo hoo! Not that I’m anxious to have 16 days off, of course.

Otherwise pretty normal day. The train was an hour late arriving in Lardville this morning. Apparently, they were passing by a freight train just after they left the station in Stockton when some freight fell off the freight train and landed on our train. They had to stop and sit around and argue about it for a while. Also take pictures. I think there might be an insurance claim against the Union Pacific railroad in the near future. I wonder how much a new locomotive costs.

I have yet another exciting job opportunity for my Loyal Readers: Kung Fu Monkey. I think we can all agree that’s pretty much a dream job.

And we’ll end with some toilet news today: pigs get in the act too. Remind me to stay away from those “special toilets.”

Went to the program’s Christmas luncheon for managers this afternoon. They didn’t plan until a bit too late, so our meal was supposed to go from 3:00 to 4:30. I had to leave at 4:45 to catch my train, and they had just barely served the entree. The food was fine and I enjoyed the company. Didn’t get much done today, though.

I’m thinking of taking a couple more days of vacation next week, giving me the entire week off, resulting in a two-week holiday. I don’t really have anything I need or want to do, but the office is going to be totally dead those days and the more time off the merrier, generally. I plan to decide for sure tomorrow.

LRN1’s been taking his finals this week and he reports that he’s done fairly well. I’m looking forward to having him home again this weekend. Also to having my truck home.

That’s about it for today. Today’s shocking food violence is even more shocking than usual, in that the violence was done to the actual food. Oh, the humanity. Or rather, the foodosity. Or something like that.

Here’s an . . . umm . . . contraption. Found it in an empty lot in Haines, Alaska. That’s our ship in the background there. Whatever that thing is, I like it. Part of my famous Machinery series.

Extreme Short Shrift. It’s not really that late, but I didn’t get enough sleep last night – or pretty much any night over the weekend. Don’t know why. So I need the shuteye tonight.

The weekend was fine, incidentally. Pretty much did what we planned. We got the Christmas decorations up on Saturday, finally. Had the usual trouble with dead strings of tree lights, so I finally broke down and bought a few new boxes. They were $2.50 each and worth every penny. We threw away the dead ones.